Bulgarian agriculture is not sufficiently market oriented. And this is a consequence of it being in bulk. And people are not to blame for this. But they have focused on subsidies as a bailout. These subsidies go to farmers. They asked to have them immediately. So nothing more than their due has been decided. It was decided to give them immediately”. This was stated in the studio of “Wake Up” by the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Kiril Vatev.
According to him, agriculture must become a national priority and it does not matter who will be the minister. “We must not deviate from this topic. We must have a 30-year forecast, on the basis of which we can make a perspective program for the development of agriculture in Bulgaria,” stressed Vatev.
“Each Bulgarian producer is fighting alone. We compete with extremely well-organized and powerful cooperatives. With very powerful agrarian chambers. We are the only ones who do not have a cooperative,” the Minister of Agriculture is categorical.
Vatev emphasized that there are many reasons for inflation and the rise in prices. “In order to have cheaper products, much more serious measures need to be taken. Only imports from Ukraine will not solve the problem with the price of products. Because we already launched a price check from the shelf in the second week since I took office the shop to the farm. For milk and milk products. We found that the largest share of the added value remains with the trader in the end. At retail. It goes up to 70%,” he stressed. And he added that the situation is similar with all other goods.
“Bulgaria lacks a law on trade in agricultural products. We don’t have such a law. There is no law on cooperatives. And they are connected. The bad thing is that we all want immediate results. But we have measures that cannot immediately produce results. If let’s change an hour soon, that is, if we introduce a law on trade in agricultural goods, many things will change, because at the moment the stronger is putting pressure on the weaker. And this pressure goes down to the farm and to the field, where there is no one to be anymore pressed. You can’t pressurize the garden. It must be watered, it must be fertilized, it must be sprayed with plant protection preparations in order for the production to survive. That is, the costs there are the same,” said the minister categorically.
